Post 382. EVEN THE OLDEST FRIENDS.

SOMETIMES DON'T GET IT. 

MY DEFAULT STYLE is DISTRUST when the FONT NAME is BREXIT.
Earlier this week an old friend forwarded the following – probably concocted by a brexiteer - email to me:
Dear Ms Nicola Sturgeon,
As your country voted to remain in the EU, the UK Government has diverted your share of Covid-19 vaccines to Brussels. Please contact the EU Commission on what dates you might receive your vaccine supplies. You will of course be in an alphabetical queue behind Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Romania. 
Love and kisses,
Boris 
I decided that Nicola Sturgeon should not be begrudged a reply and the following day sent my old friend this response on her behalf: 
Dear Master Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson,
When I require a rant from a patronising, puerile, public school Sassenach I shall cease to be a Scot. 
Scant regards, 
Nicola 
To which my old friend replied: Very good Alan. You've missed your vocation. 
Which would have been quite flattering if my name was Alan.
Ah well. 
READING.
I finished A Song for the Dark Times, another good Rebus yarn by Ian Rankin. Told you the man was a page turner. Now I have started on The Secret Language of Cats by Susanne Schotz, who starts by telling me she has five cats and talks to them all.
I've never found talking to the beggars difficult.
Getting them to listen can be hard. 
TELEVISION. 
Death in Paradise (BBC One) Sound acting. Lovely location. Dire dialogue. Unbelievable comic characters. Pitiful plots. Worldwide popularity (I am told).  What?
Oh, I watch it, but I'm just another lockdown detainee.
63 Up (ITV) We have watched the seven yearly pry into the lives of this pleasant group of individuals from right back when they were seven years old. Those still with us are now approaching the age of retirement.
Michael Apted, the man who directed them from the beginning, died on 7 January, 2021.
I can only thank each of the participants for their stoicism in the face of such constant public scrutiny, and wish them all the very best for the future. 
That's all for the time being.